C. Lapworth—Recent Discoveries in Sweden. 31 
which, more especially since the promulgation of Barrande’s theory of 
Colonies, has been the bane of British paleeonto-geology; but we find 
on the other hand a well-grounded confidence, which gains daily 
consistency by each new discovery, that among the Cambrian, 
Ordovian, and Silurian systems there are in reality successive life- 
zones, marked off from each other by distinctive but related faunas, 
corresponding in all essential respects with those that mark off the 
successive stages in the much more recent Jurassics. The supposed 
recurrences of fossil groups disappear in the light of careful investi- 
gation. In all cases where this supposed upward or downward 
extension of fauna was said to obtain, it has now been shown that 
there is in truth no intermixture; but that the faunas are broadly 
distinct, except at their point of junction, and that the hypothetical in- 
tertwining was due to erroneous ideas of the natural order of physical 
succession, or was founded upon hasty generalization due to imperfect 
knowledge. This rapid elimination of error, together with the simul- 
taneous filling up of the outlines of our knowledge of the faunas of 
the consecutive Swedish formations, has had its natural result in 
giving a remarkable definiteness to the ideas of the Swedish geolo- 
gists with respect to the limits and paleontology of the rock-groups 
of their native country.' The acceptance of their new data by extra- 
Swedish investigators is certain in time to make its influence felt 
even amongst us, and will prove of inestimable advantage in aiding 
the rising generation of our geologists to throw off the present incubus 
of official use and wont, and in opening their eyes to a proper con- 
ception of the enormous time-period and the marvellous variety of 
the successive life-groups of the great Proterozoic Age. 
The district described in this memoir is classic ground to the 
geologists of Sweden. Its fossils have been treated of in turn 
by Linnzeus, Wahlenberg, Hisinger, and Angelin; and the sequence 
of its strata has engaged the attention of several famous scientific men. 
Hisinger’s tabulation of the sequence has long been obsolete. Angelin 
was the first to recognize, with some approximation to correctness, 
the grander members of the series, and to indicate their characteristic 
fossils. Since his day much has been added to our knowledge of the 
lowest beds by the cautious investigations of Dr. Nathorst. Dr. 
Térnquist has made it the subject of two valuable papers, and 
through the more recent researches of Mr. Linnarsson our ideas of 
physical and paleontological succession are likely soon to be tolerably 
complete. His former paper, published in 1875,’ embodied the con- 
clusions drawn from the data collected by himself in a tour of the 
district, with the result of fixing the limits of the chief natural 
groups, of establishing several previously unrecognized subordinate 
divisions, and of harmonizing the whole with the general succession 
in other districts. . ; 
In his paper of 1875, the nomenclature of the Scanian Proterozoic 
1 Observations on the Graptolite-bearing Schists of Scania. By G. Linnarsson 
(Jakttagelser bfver de graptolitférande skiffarne i Skane), Geol, Foren. Forhandl, 
Stockholm, 1879, No. 8, pp. 227-258, with a plate of sections. 
2 Geol. Férens. Fordh. 1875, Bd. II., No. 8. 
